Tag Archives: shoppers

Old Navy is now selling this popular style to girls and babies, and continuing to call them boyfriend jeans. Some parents and psychologists argue that this name is inappropriate for such a young clientele, who shouldn’t be thinking about wearing their boyfriend’s jeans or even have a boyfriend at all.

In the words of Seth and Amy at the SNL Weekend Update desk — “Really?”

I’d argue that the ‘highly sexualized nature’ of the name lies in the minds of these doctors and parents. Jeans shoppers have heard it in the marketplace for years; it simply means ‘loose fitting.’ Any babies and little girls made aware of the name will define it in terms of their own innocent friendships (unless their parents attempt to explain it in an adult context and scar them forever).

Keep calm and carry on, parents. There are far bigger boogie men out there to fight.

IKEA is betting your own cold, hard cash that you don’t. That’s why they’ve designed their stores like a maze.

It takes the average shopper three hours — and some as long as eight — to weave their way through the retailer’s carefully merchandised, catalog-inspired stores. So by the time shoppers are able to find the warehouse area where they can actually purchase something and leave, they usually buy stuff they never intended (or perhaps even wanted).

It’s simple psychology, says Alan Penn, director of the Virtual Reality Centre for the Built Environment at University College London. The longer shoppers are exposed to IKEA’s products, the more impulse buys they are likely to make. And the confusing layout means they grab stuff when they see it, because backtracking to find items later would require bread crumbs…or an overnight stay.

This type of conscious manipulation kinda creeps me out…and pisses me off a little. I have always thought of IKEA products as sleek, modern and forward thinking — all about ease and simplicity.

But this kind of marketing duplicity runs counter to their brand image. When your products are as cool as IKEA’s — and as well-priced — do you really have to trap shoppers in the store to make sure they buy enough before they leave?